The ramblings of me, mostly to do with the Theatre around the West Midlands. Any queries email me at contact@wright-writes.com, tweet me @WrightTheatre, or visit the contact me page. Thanks

Monthly Archives: January 2013

I know I’m not the world’s best writer. This is a hobby of mine to give me an excuse to dwell on my interests and try to make something of it, which is what makes this article/blog post I wrote very special to me. For those in the know the Guardian is a very well respected newspaper with a website to match. Last year they asked readers who were interested to send in blogs about their favourite theatres or those theatres that are unknown about. As a member of the Crescent Theatre I’ve grown to love it and it has fast become a second home so I jumped on the opportunity. Not thinking anything of it I sent it off and got on with things. A month or so later I had a message from the boss at the theatre thanking me for the article and that it’d gone online.

As I try to collate things on here and get it started I thought I’d better link over to the Guardian website so you too can read why, for me, the Crescent Theatre is the best theatre!

The Crescent Theatre is now in its 80th year, making it one of the oldest theatre companies in Birmingham. It’s more than just a building; it’s a community of members who are passionate about every aspect of the theatre. Not only are productions produced and performed by the company members, the building is also run by volunteers. The Crescent Theatre company may be “am dram”, but audiences often comment on how professional the productions are.

Trivia fans The first picture shows a poster for my directorial debut ‘Talking Heads’ next to the poster for my Shakespeare debut ‘Merchant of Venice’. The second picture has the image used in, potentially, the best show I’ve ever been in ‘The Pillowman’ on (the apple and razorblade).

Birmingham Hippodrome once again has a huge hit of panto fun with Brian Conley heading the cast as the title character of Crusoe in this panto based loosely on the story of Robinson Crusoe.

I was lucky enough to review the show for Whats on Stage – click here to read the full review but here, like usual, is a tiny snippet!

This really is a laugh a minute panto for the whole family with jokes for the ears of the young and the old without being unsuitable. The sets are impressively large and colourful filled with fantastic performances including children from The Birmingham Stage School and an ensemble who effortlessly change characters and seem to have unlimited energy. Even those who are not panto fans will be able to raise a smile, participate and most importantly, enjoy the spectacle of pantomime.

This is the perfect panto for the festive season. 5/5

Christmas might be over, and we may be entering the new year with gusto, but it’s never too late to go see a panto!